The term ‘managed service’ refers to a practice in which a dedicated company provides the management of the whole or part of a service, such as Cloud, SQL Services, Messaging Services or Backup Services and is often enhanced by technology solutions.
In fact, Altron Digital Business offers many managed services, such as Software as a Service, Cloud Managed Services, Managed Recovery Services, M365 Managed services and Data Managed Services.
However, South Africa is the most targeted African country for ransomware and e-mail attacks, meaning cybercriminals have access to managed services such as Ransomware as a Service and Crime as a Service.
These advanced for-sale or for-rent tools or services enable even amateur cybercriminals to threaten companies and, more devastatingly, their data.
Truelist released a report earlier this year detailing global data loss statistics, and I’m sure they’re causing chief technical officers and chief security officers' sleepless nights:
According to the Sophos State of Ransomware 2022 report, 51% of South African organisations surveyed had a ransomware event in 2021. Of those, 49% that had data encrypted paid the ransom to get their data back.
Unfortunately, businesses must treat cybercrime as an eventuality, not just a threat, and take all necessary precautions.
One of the most effective ways for businesses to remain compliant and provide crucial layers of protection to their data is to use multi-cloud storage, ‘data freedom’, and, most importantly, to realise that you share a responsibility with your cloud provider to keep your data secure.
Multi-cloud storage can help your business:
Operate
Multi-cloud backups enhance operational resilience by distributing backup data securely across multiple cloud providers and on-premises systems. If one cloud provider experiences an outage, data corruption, or a security breach, your backups are still accessible from other sources. This setup ensures that business operations can continue smoothly without significant disruption.
To manage multi-cloud backups effectively, businesses should implement regular, automated backup schedules, ensure data consistency across different platforms, and conduct routine tests to verify backup integrity and restoration processes. Having a clear disaster recovery plan and ensuring that all backup locations are secure and compliant with data protection regulations is also crucial.
Optimise
Multi-cloud backups improve data management by providing multiple recovery options, which speeds up data restoration and reduces downtime. This strategy allows for more flexible and efficient recovery processes, particularly during large-scale disruptions.
While multi-cloud backups can increase costs due to paying for multiple services, they can also lead to better performance and resource utilisation by preventing bottlenecks and balancing loads across providers. Over time, the reduced risk of data loss and downtime can justify the investment.
Transform
Using multi-cloud storage helps futureproof your data management by diversifying storage solutions, which makes it easier to adapt to new technologies and emerging threats. This approach ensures that your data remains accessible and secure as technology evolves.
Multi-cloud storage supports innovation by providing flexibility to integrate new tools and platforms without being locked into a single vendor. It also secures critical data assets by offering multiple layers of protection, reducing the risk of data loss and improving overall resilience against threats.
The secure way to protect your data
Earlier, I mentioned that data security was a shared responsibility between you and your cloud platform providers. I must stress this again!
Companies must not consider their data safe and secure because it’s on the cloud. With the range of tools available, it’s becoming easier for businesses to migrate to the cloud, often registering for cloud-based SaaS products offering ‘freemium’ packages.
But unless it’s managed correctly or as a part of a top-tier package, you may not be able to export data quickly, have data backed up, and benefit from an SLA that ensures your data will be available.
Always check your backups, have a disaster recovery plan in place, and test it.
Ensure information is prioritised correctly, that batched backups from multiple cloud systems are protected, and that your on-premises system is secured so you may ‘roll back’ to a trusted state without compromising your company or your clients.